The Arrows Are Starting to Point up in the Czech IT Market

Prague, 4 February 2013 — As with other countries across Europe, the various financial crises and recessions hit the Czech Republic hard. Businesses and governments clipped budgets; the number of bankruptcies rose; and unemployment soared. But the (perhaps fragile) recovery in Europe and the eurozone is restoring confidence to the market. (TZ)

This is reflected in IT spending. From 2013, IT spending is expected to recover, with hardware, software, and services spending all expected to make positive gains through 2017. Contractions will still occur in some segments. For example, the feature phone and printer markets will continue to shrink, but nearly all other technology areas will expand in value, albeit slowly.

Highlights from the study include:

  • Smartphone and media tablet expansion to continue: The rising uptake of smartphones and media tablets continued across all vertical markets and was the main contributor to overall IT market growth in 2012 in the Czech Republic.
  • The consumer market now the second largest: Accounting for around 17% of spending, it is largely driven by tablet and smartphone acquisitions. It will also be the fastest growing market through 2017.
  • Retail and manufacturing will be the next fastest growing: Mobility and online shopping are reshaping retail in the Czech Republic, and retailers are fighting over cautious customers, thus spurring investments in IT to gain a competitive edge. Economic recovery in Europe will help spur demand for Czech exports, fueling a need to improve manufacturing efficiency.
  • Midrange server segment to grow: Although servers represent a small part of the overall IT market, virtualization, datacenter development, and the push to consolidate hardware are generating demand for upper range low-end servers and midrange servers.

For more information, see IDC’s Czech Vertical Markets 2013–2017 IT Spending Forecast.

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